Oh, but grasshopper, you must become one with your face, the razor and the blade to determine exactly what it is you want from your shave. For me I want sharp but not harsh, smooth but not without some feedback, and a quiet alum afterward. It is my shaving Zen that I aspire to. Unless using bad blades or some other stupid thing like that, but then I've never tried that now have I.

O brother!

Here it comes...

so let me guess...

Zen in Russian is spelled -

V-O-S-K-H-O-D

:wave:

Well, technically it's Восход but yes, you have made the Russian blade cartel proud!

06/24/2015
Razor – ATT R2 with Triad SS Helix
Blade – Feather (2)
Brush – EJ XL STF
Lather – Strop Shoppe Baker Street
Post - Witch Hazel and Fine Platinum



Another fantastic shave with the R2 this morning. This was the best shave I've had with the R2 with it nearing the results I get with the Mongoose. Going to miss this razor when it goes back to it's owner. But at least I'll get the Mongoose back. This brush is continuing to impress me. It whipped up the SS Baker Street very quickly. Finished off with a splash of Fine Platinum. Happy Wednesday.

June 23rd, SOTD (Shave 14 of this focus)
One days’ growth
Prep: Hot Shower
Razor: Wade & Butcher The Celebrated Extra Hollow Ground
Strop: Drygulch Chromexcel Horsehide/ Linen (20 on linen, 50 on leather)
Soap: Jabonman Lima-Incienso
Brush: Eveready 100T re-knotted with 22mm TGN Synthetic
Post Shave: Cold Water Rinse, Alum Block, Thayer’s Witch Hazel
Aftershave: The Holy Black Whisker Whiskey- Gunpowder Spice

I wasn’t sure if I was going to shave again today, but wondered if my prep might have been off or something yesterday. I did my normal prep this morning, and did a two pass shave, N/S and S/N. Didn’t do any touch up. DFS, with a few rough spots on the neck, but not much in the way of alum sting. I think yesterday my neck was so tender because I had been doing a single pass S/N shave. Going to see if I can keep on it for at least a week with the daily shaves.
This is more of a croap than a soap, but it took me less than five seconds to load the brush for more lather than was needed for two passes. The menthol felt good on the second pass. Aftershave smells great, and it’s one that lasts all day. Made with actual whiskey, and gives a good burn.

Day #4 of 5; 30-Days of June
Slight detour this morning as I test drove three razors that belong to @Drygulch that were in for some new scales, cleanup & honing. See HERE for more on their restoration. The shave consisted of three passes plus a little touch-up, incorporating the three razors as I went along.

First Pass/Downward strokes: Left-side of my face using the Cattaraugus 'Green Lizard' the largest of the three blades, this one was also the trickiest to use. Very THIN blade that was very audible; some slight resistance around my tough patches. The thinness of the blade created an almost paper-like effect as if I were dragging an edge of a piece of paper across my whiskers. It required several overlapping passes to achieve smoothness. On the opposite side of my face, I used the W. Case & Sons (-)5/8." This razor took an extremely keen edge. The blade is slightly under 5/8" and very easy to maneuver. No resistance in the shave and very little audible feedback. Very smooth shaver!

Second Pass /horizontal stroke: Switched side using the same two razors with similar effect. I found the somewhat fragile 'feel' of the Green Lizard's blade to be a little disconcerting in use and so wound up implementing a very light stroke. I achieved smooth results with no irritation. The Case, in contrast, seemed compact and sturdy, and I made quick work on the opposite side of my face. As I mentioned in the first pass, this is a smooth shaver.

Final Pass & Touch-Up/Upward strokes: For the final pass, I used the tiny black-scaled Cattaraugus. The textured scales made holding this little guy a bit easier. This is ONE SMALL RAZOR. The blade however took a very keen edge, very similar to the Case (hair-popping sharp!). With a small and easy-to-manuever blade, this little Catt was ideal for the tight-trimming around my mustache, mouth and soul patch. A very cool little razor!
End result: a near-BBS shave!

Overall, this was a very interesting shave using three distinctly different razors. Despite my initial negative impressions on the Green Lizard, once I got accustomed to the feel of the blade and maintained a light touch, it did do the job! My favorite of the three was the W. Case & Sons—sharp, easy to use, smooth feeling on the face with not a trace of harshness. The small Cattaraugus is a uniquely-sized razor that is fun to use, although in my big hands, it is lost toy-like. It is, however, quite comfortable on the face and wickedly-sharp.

These all will be cleaned, sterilized, polished up and sent out to Adam this week.

That was the razor in the worst shape of the three, and I was fully expecting Kevin to tell me was in too bad of shape to restore. I am excited to take these out for my own test drive!

Shave of the day

Pre- Hot shower, Anna and Claras sandalwood bath soap

Soap/cream- Barrister and Mann Lime/Lavender/Cedarwood

Brush- Semogue 1470 boar

Razor- Merkur 37c

Blade- Wilkinson sword(2)

Post- Cold water rinse, Lucky tiger Bay rum aftershave lotion and Nivea sensitive cooling aftershave balm

Bowl lathering has been fun and I'm seeing a little progress in my brush, it's breaking in better =)

Okey shave today. It felt really good until I was finished, i found a few to many patches that wasn't as close as the rest of my face. It must have to do with me only painting the lather on.

When I lather the soap I need to swirl the brush with the lather a little on my face to lift the hairs.



Im working on breaking in my Semogue 1470 boar brush. It was been VERY Stubborn and I cant get a good lather when facelathering. Im now bowl lathering with it to log more uses with it and kickstart the breaking in =)

The 3 razors look fantastic.

June 24, 2015

30 Day RULE - “Lather, Rinse, Repeat. Lather, Rinse, Repeat. Lather, Rinse….”

Hot Shower
Pre-Shave Oil: Gingers Garden
Soap: Arko
Brush: Omega Pro 48
Razor: Gillette Tech “Fat Handle”
Blade: Gillette Wilkinson Sword Stainless (India) (1)
After Shave: Myrsol Agua Limon
After Shave Balm: Gingers Garden



Much better 2-pass shave today after tossing my last blade after 3 shaves. As my focus this month has been more on my technique, while changing blades religiously after 3 shaves, I'll be trying to monitor blade wear a bit more closely as I finish up this last week on this blade brand.

On that note - I'll be doing a July focus on blade trials to compliment the Tech I've been learning on. I figure I'll try a different blade brand each week to determine a range of blades that I can settle in with with this razor. So please feel free to throw some suggestions for blades my way.
(Yes, yes comrade, Voskhod will be one of them.)

Cheers!
RT

Razor: Gillette Aristocrat, 1947, Birth Razor
Blade: Gillette, Platinum (6)
Brush: Semogue 1305 Boar Tri Colored Wood Handle.
Shaving Cream : BlueBeard's Revenge
A/S: Pinuad Lime
Day24
Good lather tonight with the cream. DFS 3 passes. Heading on the road for a few days. I'll check back next week.

Have a safe trip.

World Tournament of Blades - Russia vs. the World!!
June 24, 2015
Prep - Hot shower and towel
Brush - VDH Boar
Soap - Proraso
Razor - '59 Ball End Tech
Blade - (2)
Post - Alum, Nivea Balm

Back to the good old USA for the Personna Lab Blue today. It gets its day on the field in an attempt to make the Final Four and face off with the Bic. It still has to beat the Turkish Derby so here we go. The short loft VDH Boar and Proraso Green is almost an idiot proof lather. Seriously, I could have done six passes from the one brush load. Can't blame the lather for anything today.

First pass and the Blue is still sharp on its second run in the tournament and still smooth as well. Nice feel and nice result on the pass. It did feel like a nick on the neck but after checking it was a false alarm. Lathered again and went XTG to good results. Still smooth and sharp. Neck needed some touch up for the DFS and it went just as smooth. Seemed like an absolute great shave. Nearly perfect.

Scoring - Sharpness - 1. Smoothness - 1. Irritation - hit the alum and did a double take. More burn than I expected. Lasted a bit longer than I thought as well. That has to be a 2. Result? DFS for a 2.

Total - 6

Not a bad result, and just a hair worse than its first run. I scored the burn a 1.5 there so this blade may have shown just a bit of weakness on its second shave. We'll see how it holds up as we head to Turkey tomorrow!

After my last "meanwhile in America" picture I figured you'd suffered enough. And, in honor of the week after Father's Day I'll share this one with you. Hope all you Dads got this kind of love without the same result!

​

Day 23 - 24 May 2015

30 Day Rule Focus with a Cadet OC!


​

Day nine on this blade, I have decided to see how far I can push this blade. So far so good! Using the shave stick method again I was able to get the normal 2 Pass Automatic smoothness! Kept it real simple on the finish, Alum and a little Clubman. Busy day, horrible weather, great shave! Other than that...all is quiet in Colorado.

Have a wonderful Thursday!
​

Then I raise a glass of vodka and a spoonful of caviar in your honor!

Categorically beautiful restoration and honing, per usual!

Thank you for taking it easy on our retinas today, comrade.

Have a safe journey and we'll see you soon!

@Rufus T. --

Neal is spot on. These are exactly the kinds of questions you should keep in mind as you do your July focus. In general, the Tech will be great with most blades. As your technique solidifies, your ability to answer Neal's questions will also increase, and eventually your favorite blade will simply emerge. Shave on!

Welcome aboard! I believe that was your first shave posted to the 30 Day thread!